Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation announced today that it has received a three-year grant of $1 million from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The funding will support the launch of jazz.NEXT, a research and development program that will support projects that incorporate technology in substantive and innovative approaches to audience development, communications, distribution, marketing and the building of support networks.
In this new technology-driven age, jazz artists and organizations must increasingly adapt to new ways of connecting with audiences and distributing their work, said Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. We are delighted to support Mid Atlantic Arts Foundations jazz.NEXT program, which will help the jazz field capitalize on the opportunities technology presents and forge new paths for the future.
Jazz.NEXT is envisioned as a laboratory to test models that have the potential to shape future practice in order to meet the long-term challenges of the changing landscape for the field of jazz.The program will provide multi-year support for the planning and/or implementation of a limited number of projects. Program participants will share experiences, ideas, and lessons learned through regularly scheduled convenings and ongoing communications facilitated by a dedicated online site. Findings from the program will be made available to a broad audience of jazz artists, presenters, managers, distributors, funders, and other stakeholders through the distribution of case studies of model jazz.NEXT projects.
Jazz is in a time of particular distress as its traditional support systems decline and the music marketplace is being transformed by new technologies, says Alan Cooper, Executive Director of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. With a long history of supporting jazz, we are pleased to be partnering with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to help the jazz community address core issues that can shape and strengthen future operating practice and build a more sustainable environment for the art form.
The goal of jazz.NEXT is to encourage creative thinking that will result in the development of new operating models to be incorporated into the ongoing practice of jazz artists, organizations, and presenters. Results will be widely disseminated in order to encourage the adoption of innovative approaches developed through the program, and to promote further exploration of new strategies for sustainability through technology. It is anticipated that guidelines for the new program will be available by February 1, 2009.
About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation fosters and supports arts programming for the benefit of arts organizations, artists and audiences and encourages exchanges that link the arts resources of the mid-Atlantic region to the rest of the nation and the world. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the regions state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional perspective. The region includes nine states and jurisdictions: The District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia and West Virginia.
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of peoples lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Dukes properties. www.ddcf.org
For more information contact All About Jazz.
